When researching for this project it reminded me of art exhibition I went to a few months ago in FACT called the Art of Pop. The Art of Pop had more than 100 video clips telling the story of music videos running constantly on numerous screens and projections through the gallery.
The use of different screens throughout the gallery worked really well and gave the audience an chance to see certain videos in different ways, how the appear along side other styles ect.
While looking into second screen I tested out QR codes. QR codes are a pixilated image (example shown below) that when scanned on a smart phone or tablet links to a website, video or image. I find QR codes interesting and I think they do serve a purpose but I think the audience is minimal. I think it's a case of a good idea but has a limited reach.
QR Code linking to our website
I much prefer a different type of second screen a piece of software called Layar. Layar works on a similar basis to QR codes but feels a lot more user friendly and I think it's a lot more interesting for the consumer.
Instead of scanning a a barcode you scan an image and then that image can link you to anything from a video to a website. This allows the producer to be a lot more creative.
I first came across Layar around a year ago when I began creating video's for a magazine called LowDown in Liverpool. Layar was built into the magazine so that when you scanned an image in the mag the person would come to life and talk to you about each article.
I've recently started working with a company called Wray Brothers. Wray Brothers sell cleaning and clothing products all around the country and through my idea of bringing Layar to there catalog every issue from 2015 will contain a video to match each item of clothing.
I think Layar is something that could and should become a far more popular use of technology, I really like the way in which it is used in the video below. Taking popular scenes from films and brining them to life when you at the location of the film.
For this part of the project I experimented with the software Isadora. This software allows the producer to manipulate realtime and prerecorded media. One of the positives I found about the software was how the producer could import different media files and then allow Isadora to randomise the different files and create a unique end product. I liked the fact it gave the producer the ability to be the consumer to an extent.
I wasn't very impressed with the layout of the software, the features and look felt dated, also the effects felt rather dated too. It's gave me inspiration for in the future to create sections of films or music videos with a sort 80's style effect in parts.
In the video above I like the way the technique is used, I think the way the video would be improved to do experiment the use of colour more, I think the dot's work perfectly and this style could look really interesting if the shapes were sharper, and changed more in size. This technique could then be used really effectively in a Pop Art video piece. I'd like to explore this style for a music video of some sort.
In conclusion I think this software could work well but to create something that's contemporary and substantial it would need to integrated into other pieces of software such as after affects or final cut.
Although I've only just discovered how YouTube Annotations can be creative I've used them professionally for over a year now.
As you can see in the video above this is the end screen to all our sessions at CCTV. It provides a chance for us to let our viewers continue to watch more videos, we can add similar videos of people's interests, link to play lists, link to Facebook, twitter, our website and allow people to subscribe to our channel.
The still above shows the analytics from youtube of views and estimated minutes watched we've gained from annotations. Over 22 months we've gained an extra 534 views and an estimated 1,509 minutes. It's not a lot in comparison to the amount of views we've gained over all in that time but it's worth the extra time to put them in.
This week in Creative Media Practice we looked into split screens and spatial montage. The use of split screen is something I've been fascinated in since a young age, due to the use of it in films I've always loved, such as 500 days of Summer and Jackie Brown. In my first year of college I wanted to use this idea of reality and expectation that is conveyed through split screen in the film 500 days of Summer, because this was the first film I ever made I couldn't master the technique of split screen so I took inspiration from other ways of creating this style, used in the film sliding doors. My short film is shown below.
I think if I was to recreate this film I'd attempt to use split screen, I'm happy with the film as it was my first attempt using a camera properly but I think I could improve it now that my camera, editing and lighting skills have improved.
After experimenting with this process I've decided I like the way in which in allows the producer to manipulate the narrative in new way. Allowing two different narratives to exist together to create a new one.
While researching split screen I stumbled on a music video of a song called 'Closing Time' by a band called 'Semisonic'.
I loved the way the two narratives came together at the end and the use of two takes worked really well, this something I would love to explore more in my final project.
As the end of this academic year draws near and I've reflected on my university work I feel I also want to reflect on the last five months focusing on something that has changed from a hobby to what seems to be an amazing career path.
Of course I'm talking about Culture City Television (CCTV), If you don't already know its a company that me and a few uni friends started on the 1st of January 2013. The idea of Culture City Television sort of came out of what I was doing at college, just merging my love of music and film together through recording college bands, being in a few bands myself and always being that annoying lad at the front of a gig with a massive camera! When I started uni this year I realised it might be a good time to make a proper go of it and include some of like minded passionate people that are in my class (Rion and Peter),
As for future plans, we've got a lot of them, we've just started working with a paper based listing magazine in Liverpool called 'LOW DOWN', this magazine gives out 10,000 free copies a month and features every artist you can think of, we hopefully will be working with them to incorporate our content in the magazine through what I think is a great piece of technology called layar. We're planning on putting on a big gig in the future, and maybe making it annual, seasonal or even monthly, these gigs would consist of the best bands we've had on and would filmed perfectly through a live stream to the internet allowing us to sell out the venue plus sell online tickets.
Since our first video was uploaded on 01/01/13 we've filmed over 30 musicians/bands, a theatre company, Peter Guy and Clarry Mowforth from The GIT Awards, Ian Tilton, Photographer to the stars and numerous gigs. We've also incorporated Film reviews on our site and expanding on what started as a small youtube channel.
I've also had the pleasure to be invited on the Billy Butler show, attended numerous networking events, been invited to some of my favourite bands album launch parties and I'm also over the moon to be attending the LMA's (Liverpool Music Award) nominations party very soon!
Already we've been in contact with some great film companies, one being "Bright moon Media" and I'm really enjoying being involved in the latest film project the City That Rocked The World.
